Carlo_M
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 1997
- Messages
- 13,385
The DD track isn't done by Dolby Labs. The argument therefore is futile.Also keep in mind that DTS doesn't do their own tracks anymore either. They have pretty much given every major studio and their DVD authoring sections their encoders. Just talked with the guys at the HTF L.A. Meet and their response to accusations that they are monkeying with the masters is "well they aren't done here, so if someone is going through the trouble of altering the mixes, it is not us, and it is not at our request."
And a popular argument is that DTS changes their masters while DD is blameless. I am here to say that can be very *incorrect*.
There are many DD mixes that are altered so that they can be downconverted in-player for Dolby Surround or stereo systems. Think of all the titles that have only 5.1 tracks and no stereo tracks, and chances are those mixes have been altered because they don't trust the in-player decoding chip to do a good job of properly folding a 5.1 mix into a surround or stereo. So that in itself may explain why surrounds are softer on some DD tracks, because they are made softer because if they were loud, and then an in-player chip sends a strong rear surround channel to the main Left or Right speaker it may, and probably will, sound totally inappropriate.
DTS does not encourage, or even have a procedure for, making a 5.1 soundtrack that is "downmix friendly".
PS - I do come from the camp where I have heard some DTS tracks sound better, and some where I can't tell the difference at all, so I am by no means a DTS-fanboy. But after meeting and talking with them and their engineers (twice now in the last two years) I really get the sense that they aren't the ones monkeying with their mixes and that there is something else going on. People are real quick to point the finger at DTS because DD is "the spec" but there are compromises going on in the DD camp (particularly the downmix-safe 5.1 tracks) that could just as easily explain the potential differences.
[Edit] we must have been typing at the same time (took a while to do mine) as I see Jeff Gatie also mentioned the pro-logic optimized (or downmix-safe) method for DD tracks.[/edit]